Archive For 'March, 2012'

Children and staff from Years 3-8 dressed up as their favourite book characters. The school's official Readathon organiser, Librarian Mrs Mary Cassidy, was clearly not the only one to love good books about witches!

And when it comes to good books about witches, there are plenty of them - from Julia Donaldson's "Room on the Broom" to Roald Dahl's "The Witches." What's your favourite book about witches?

Clachan Primary School, a small rural school in Scotland, came up with a great new idea for Readathon this term. It decided to hold its sponsored read on the Friday evening after World Book Day so that the whole village could come along to join in the fun.

Children, parents, staff and other members of the local community were invited to bring in their favourite book to share from 7pm until midnight. The celebrations culminated in a midnight feast! By charging admission, the reading event raised an impressive £59 for Readathon and earned the school enough free book tokens to buy several new books for its library.

"It was a great literacy experience!" reports Mrs Catherine Black, Acting Head Teacher.

It just goes to show that you don't have to be a big school to have big ideas - or to hold a successful and memorable Readathon! Congratulations to everyone who helped make Clachan Primary School's Readathon such a great success.

Readathon was delighted to be invited to provide the judges for a creative writing competition run by Build A Book, which provides creative writing workshops for Gloucestershire primary school children.

Entrants were invited to colour in a snowy scene and write a paragraph inspired by the picture. The many fabulous entries were judged by two children's authors who work for Readathon, Brough Girling and Francesca Stich.

Three lucky winners each received the prize of a free place on a Build A Book workshop, plus lots of Build A Book goodies. In first place was Madison (7) from Leckhampton School with "Just the Way Mr Snowman likes it". A close second was Daniel (8) of Lakeside Primary School and his "Golden Penguin". Lewis (11) of Warden Hill Primary School was in third place with "Slicing through the icy snow".

Here's Madison's winning story:

"One frosty and cold day - just the way Mr Snowman liked it - some children ran out and said, "It's snowing!" So they put on a woolly scarf and a cuddly hat and a warm coat. Then the two boys started having a snow ball fight by Mr Snowman. He was terrified. Then some children went tobogganing down the hill. Mr Snowman will be squashed! Suddenly he started to move..."

All of these authors feature frequently on the lists of books chosen by primary school children for their Readathon sponsored read. Some especially prolific readers have even volunteered to read all of Roald Dahl's children's books or the complete Harry Potter series.

But Readathon participants are not obliged to read on this scale. Our sponsored reading scheme - the only UK national sponsored reading event - is designed to be accessible to readers of all ranges of ability.

"With Readathon, each child chooses their own reading material," explains Brough Girling, Readathon founder. "For some children, especially struggling or reluctant readers, completing just one book of any kind will be a real achievement. But the most important thing about Readathon is that it makes them realise that reading is fun. This encourages them to read for pleasure, a habit proven to provide substantial lifelong benefits."

Jeff Kinney's Diary of A Wimpy Kid has been awarded Blue Peter Best Children's Book of the Last 10 Years. Children were asked to vote for titles in a shortlist of the decade's ten bestselling children's books, which included stories about Hogwarts wizard Harry Potter by J K Rowling and the tale of the young James Bond by Charlie Higson.